Restaurants fueled a 27,910 rise in franchise jobs in June, according to a report released Wednesday by a national payroll processor. About 75% of private-sector franchise jobs added last month were from restaurants, the ADP National Franchise Report found. It's an increase over the 19,160 jobs added in May. “Restaurants can be credited for the majority of the growth and are followed by, to a lesser extent, gas stations [and] auto repair shops, business services and accommodations,” Ahu Yildirmaz, senior director of the ADP Research Institute, said in a statement.

WASHINGTON -- The government's unexpectedly strong June jobs report leaves the Federal Reserve on track to start tapering its bond-buying stimulus efforts as early as September, analysts said Friday. "The labor market has very strong momentum," Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in New York, said of the 195,000 net new jobs added last month. The figure, along with upward revisions to job growth in April and May, put the average monthly figure at 202,000 this year.

NEW YORK -- Investors don't seem too impressed with good news. After an initial sharp rise, stocks barely edged higher in early trading Friday following the U.S. Department of Labor's report that the economy added 195,000 jobs in June, higher than economists had predicted. The Dow Jones industrial average was nearly flat shortly after the opening bell, at 14,990.33 points. QUIZ: How much do you know about the stock market? The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up 1.75 points, or 0.11%, to 1,617.16.

Back in mid-2009, when policymakers finally seemed to grasp how severe the recession was, economists at the Congressional Budget Office warned that it would take the country about six years to return to full employment. Almost four years have passed since the jobless rate peaked at 10%, and we're less than halfway back to the unemployment rates seen before the Wall Street meltdown. And that's despite the fact that the workforce has shrunk, thanks in part to retirements and more people going to school full time instead of looking for jobs.

NEW YORK --Stocks jumped 1% as the federal government reported the labor market was gaining strength, overshadowing fears of the Federal Reserve winding down its stimulus. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 147.29 points to 15,135.84 at the closing bell on Wall Street. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 16.48, or 1%, to 1,631.89. The technology-focused Nasdaq composite index was up 35.71 points, or 1%, to 3,479.38. Investors feasted on a U.S. Labor Department report showing the economy added 195,000 jobs in June, higher than economists had predicted.

Though Friday's job report showed the nation added nearly 200,000 jobs in June , the number of people working part-time due to slack economic conditions rose sharply. The number of people unable to find full-time work rose by 322,000 to 8.2 million last month. This figure had been decreasing from a peak of 9.1 million in mid-2009. The latest monthly payroll gains once again were led by restaurants and bars, which added a combined 52,000 jobs. The leisure and hospitality industry, as a whole, accounted for 75,000 of all the net job growth in June.

California will report Friday how the labor market fared in May. Economists expect the California jobs report to show modest growth, but they will be watching a few key industries that will signal whether the recovery is still on track. The state unemployment rate stands at 9%, according to the Employment Development Department. Since the recovery began in February 2010, state payrolls have grown by about 757,000 net jobs, according to the latest government figures. Here are six things to expect from Friday's jobs report: 1. Economists predict that the state will have added between 17,000 and 20,000 net jobs in May -- that's if California nabs its share (roughly 10%)

One fifth of the gender pay gap can be attributed to many women still working in some of the lowest paying fields, a report finds. Fifty years after President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, the White House's National Equal Pay Task Force has taken a look at why women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. The conclusion? The top professions among women haven't changed all that much over the last half century. Women are still more likely than men to work minimum-wage or low-pay service jobs.

NEW YORK -- Conventional wisdom said that good news in the jobs market would lead to bad news in the stock market Friday morning. Investors, seeing decent jobs data, would assume that the Federal Reserve would stop pumping money into the economy, and begin to sell off stocks, the theory went. But little is predictable on Wall Street, and instead, investors turned a decent jobs number into a good run in the stock market, as traders pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average up more than 100 points in the first 30 minutes of trading.

WASHINGTON - So much for a spring swoon. The economy created more jobs than expected in April and the government boosted hiring figures for the previous two months, easing fears that the recovery was headed for a significant slowdown. The Labor Department reported Friday that 165,000 net new jobs were added last month and sharply upgraded the totals for February and March by a combined 114,000 positions. The news sparked a market rally as key indexes vaulted to record highs. The unemployment rate ticked down one-tenth of a percentage point to 7.5%, the lowest level since December 2008.